superstitions about hair

[chen bao jun]

These are superstitions about hair that people with African descent can have. I wonder if you have superstitions from other backgrounds.
I've never heard most of these but I know my mom will gather up every shedded hair even when she combs it or someone else combs it and take it home to destroy. She says she doesn't believe in people putting a spell on you, but that its a habit that she can't break.
Also, people would come to my dad to cut their hair (on St. John Baptist day, always) because he was supposed to have the 'growing hand.' For plants, too--people would have him repot their plants.
http://derbycitynaturals.com/2011/03/18/old-fashioned-black-hair-superstitions/

ETA: http://kateevangelistarandr.blogspot.com/2010/10/superstitions-connected-with-hair.html
here's some more, not African american but general.
But they also say to dispose of your own cut hair, oddly enough.

[Vrindi]

That's really interesting about the bird's nest. When I was a little girl, we would get trims around the spring equinox, and would take the hair and some bits of ribbon outside and leave it for the birds to find. Then we'd go out later and look for the nests with bright pieces of ribbons and we knew they'd used our hair too.

Also, I'd been told that you trim your hair on the new moon, so that as the moon waxes, so will your hair growth. Start anything you want to increase on the new moon, and anything you want to decrease on the full.

My heritage: Irish, Scottish, Welsh, a little bit Huron tribe.

[mbondare]

I am Russian and there is also the superstition that someone may use your hair to cast a spell/curse on you.
I have also heard that hair protects or projects your energy (something like that) and you should only let someone you truly trust cut your hair - I think a lot of people follow this one not because of the superstition as fear of a bad haircut :P

Interesting link btw!

[humble_knight]

Same superstition in Bangladesh - cut hair may be used to cast a spell, or curse upon the person whose hair was cut. Same belief for cut finger and toe-nails.

[norths]

when i was little when my mum first cut my baby hair, she put a lock in one of our encyclopedia books as she said it would make me smart and read all the time. well i guess now i am a book nerd dont know if it was from that though ;)

[gnome82]

Interesting, Thank You for sharing

[AnnaB]

I have a Ukrainian/Russian background and always was told the only right way to get rid of hair is to burn it so it can't used by anyone to jinx you.

[Seanymph]

Same here. Burn the hair so no one who means you harm can use it to curse you.

[Arahirien]

I've definitely heard the one about cutting/trimming one's hair at the new moon so it'll grow. In the version I heard, it had to be half an inch on the day of the new moon, and then your hair would grow so long you could sit on it.

Another one that I've heard is that rainwater falling off the eaves of a house is supposed to make hair grow, and grapevine sap is said to have the same growth properties. Not...sure I believe that one, but I did try the half-inch-at-the-new-moon trim once when I was younger.

[chen bao jun]

Yeah, I heard it about fingernails and toenails, too. Supposedly, they can make some kind of voodoo doll and hurt you by hurting the doll or something like that. If anybody wanted to get me that way, they'd have lots of opportunity. I shed a bunch and my hair is all over the place lol

[jacqueline101]

I've done the bird nest one years ago.

[Jeno86]

It was said that if a woman were to undo her braid, that it could cause storms. Other versions say if a woman unbinds her braid by the ocean it can cause terrible storms that destroy ships. An old one is if a Witch shakes her unbound hair while casting a spell, the spell becomes more powerful. I know an odd amount of hair related myths, could probably fill a book haha.

[chen bao jun]

It was said that if a woman were to undo her braid, that it could cause storms. Other versions say if a woman unbinds her braid by the ocean it can cause terrible storms that destroy ships. An old one is if a Witch shakes her unbound hair while casting a spell, the spell becomes more powerful. I know an odd amount of hair related myths, could probably fill a book haha.
Great, share some more. And what country/culture is that from? I have heard that in the Renaissance period there were some ideas of that kind and that they used to burn witches saying they were causing storms like this (most people think the Middle Ages was when they burned witches but actually, no, the Renaissance is the problem period for this, up through 17th century) but I've never seen contemporary documentation with those exact charges.
I have also heard that so you would have an easy childbirth, they would untie all knots in the room, and you couldn't have braided hair. I heard that the Greeks and romans used to think this--but alas, can't remember a source or documentation so maybe it is not true.

[Anne10]

Eating bread crusts gives you curly hair - I heard this all time growing up but I think it was just because I didn't like to eat the crust. We are Irish and Scandinavian.